AB Original Show What Community Is All About

The hip-hop group have won two awards early at Australia's annual awards ceremony, on a par with leading nominees Gang of Youths and troubadour Paul Kelly.

"We made this album for our community, in our community, from our community," rapper Briggs said as they accepted their first award of the night for Best Urban Release for album Reclaim Australia.

"Change doesn't come from everyone being comfortable," he added.

The duo have been vocal in pushing for a change in the country around indigenous rights, with Briggs telling AAP on the red carpet that Australia Day is "trash".

The group also accepted the award for Best independent Release.

"The main point of this whole record was to spark a change an expectation and an idea of what an indigenous artist could be," Briggs said.

"We've made it, we've persisted, we've been here for 80,000 years."

The duo then took to the stage for one of the night's most charged performances alongside Paul Kelly, performing his two songs Life Is Fine and Dumb Things with Dan Sultan on guitar.

Kelly, 40 years into his career, took out his third Best Male ARIA and also won Best Adult Contemporary Award for his first No.1 album Life Is Fine.

Western Sydney band Gang of Youths were also having a big night. Out of their eight nominations, the most of the night, the band won two including Best Rock Group and Best Rock Album for their second record Go Farther In Lightness.

"To my wife Cort, sorry for throwing you in the deep end of this. She didn't realise I was famous when I first met her," frontman David Le'aupepe said as he accepted the award with his bandmates.

"To the haters online go f*** yourselves."

The band also shook it up with one of the night's most energetic rock performances.

One of the night's earliest winners, Amy Shark who won Best Pop, gave a stirring performance of her hit song Adore.

New Zealand star Lorde took it from the floor to the dance floor, performing a medley of her tracks Liability and Green Light.

But it was pop star Jessica Mauboy and dance duo Peking Duk who stole the show, with an explosive performance of their songs Fallin' and Stranger, complete with a firework-shooting guitar.